Edgar Allan Poe's life (1809–1849) was Gothic, mysterious, theatrical, fatally flawed, original, dark, dazzling, satirical, inventive—in short, an ideal subject to join Peter Ackroyd's other superb short biographies. In these "200 pages of beautifully concentrated and cadenced prose" (Glasgow Herald), Ackroyd's Poe is a man haunted by dying women—his mother died of consumption when he was only two, his stepmother when he was 20, and his wife Virginia died of the same disease (and at the same age) as his mother. Though he finally earned the recognition he sought with "The Raven," success could not save Poe from himself, and he was dead by the age of 40, his final days as mysterious as much of his writing.

"Ackroyd is clearly fascinated by his subject. He makes the reader want to re-read Poe, and indeed to read more of Ackroyd on Poe."—Scotland on Sunday